Nioh: Which Skills You Should Get First

Nioh: Which Skills You Should Get First

Nioh Sword Skills

Which Skills You Should Get First

Skills are a mechanic within Nioh that allow players to spend points earned in-game that unlock more abilities and move sets for a specific weapon type. These range from basic swords to incredibly powerful spells, allowing users to customize how they want to play Nioh. Starting early on it can be a bit daunting to figure out where to spend your hard-earned skill points, so here are our suggestions for some of the best early skills to unlock. It’s important to note that these will, for the most part, be level one skills that offer either great utility to branch out in more powerful directions, or are fundamental abilities that should be a part of any arsenal.

For those who want to use the sword, one of the first skills we highly recommend grabbing is the Leaf Glide. This allows you to parry an opponent’s attacks while you’re in the Mid-stance by hitting Square. This is a very powerful move to have early on, as it allows you to take advantage of all the bandits and base Yokai. Given much of Nioh’s combat is focused around exploiting an enemy’s weakness, being able to flip behind them is a wonderful way to catch a foe by surprise. The other defensive sword skill worth trying out is Sword Ki, as it allows you to create a shockwave that knocks enemies back when you’re guarding. Since it’s easy to get ganged up on in Nioh, Sword Ki will offer players some much-needed breathing room to either escape or find better positioning.

For less defensive skills, both Tempest and Swallow’s Wing can output some serious pain if you time them correctly with your combos. The latter is a follow-up attack that not only lets William land another hit, but pseudo dodge in the process. Given that a lot of one-on-one battles result in players doing some damage and then rolling away, this is a fantastic alternative. If you’re running a heavy armor build, Swallow’s Wing is one of the best skills for adding a bit more maneuverability to your character.

Tempest is simply just a powerful move that not only throws an enemy off balance but allows you to follow up with some strikes of your own. While it can be used in both Mid and Low stance, we recommend using it with Low since you’ll have a better chance of landing all your hits on an enemy when they’re lying on the ground. Breaking an enemy’s guard can be great for either dealing with foes that play super defensively, or when the terrain doesn’t offer a ton of maneuverability options for players.